This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
也
In brief: cultivating oneself and saving others matter equally
Common reading
In Classical Chinese it is a particle of judgment, affirmation, question or exclamation, or means “or” and the like: “It is that one does not do it, not that one cannot (也)”; Shiji, “Basic Annals of the Five Emperors”: “Shun was a man of Jizhou (也).” “How sad (也)!” Zuozhuan, Duke Cheng year 2: “What a pity (也)! Better to give him more towns.” In modern Chinese it means likewise, stresses two things side by side, gives emphasis, a turn, tact or concession: “I understand, and you understand too (也).”
Design reading
也 has a 十 in the middle, crossed on the left by a vertical-bend-hook and joined on the right by a turning hook: two hooks facing each other, one facing out and one facing in. Obtaining the Fa and cultivating: on the one hand cultivating oneself, on the other saving the people of the world, both equally important. This form is used for the meaning “likewise, two things side by side”.
About this entry
This entry is taken from the edited manuscript of LI Xutong’s Exploring the Design Mysteries of Chinese Characters. The common reading follows traditional philology, the Shuowen Jiezi and other classics, and modern dictionaries; the design reading recovers the rationale of the character’s formation from the meanings of its strokes, the pairing of yin and yang, and the nine-palace layout, following the New Six Scripts. The premise of the design reading, that the generative mechanism of Chinese characters was designed, is an axiom of this system and differs from the evolutionary account usual in philology; the two readings are kept apart, as surface and depth.